I had a request to make a video about how to prepare a sticky medium I use when making my Huichol i spired bead art. Indigenous Huichols use Compeche wax which is a natural product from the hives of a unique kind of stingless bee in Mexico. I don’t have access to that kind of wax — well I do, but it is very expensive, so I make my medium from a combination of pine sap and beeswax. Here is my process and where I either gather or purchase materials.
I do prefer to gather my own sap when possible because it helps me meditate of the spirit of nature that is being infused into the work as I make it. It also feels more personal. It connects me to the good memory of gathering the material from nature, just as my forbears would have, and those memories become part of the art as well.
THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST 